Here's some recipes I'm developing. As much as I enjoy Indonesian sambals and saus pedas, sometimes I find myself missing more American-style sauces (sour and watery instead of thick and sweet)
(Named not because it contains Tabasco peppers but because it can serve a similar function)
Start with a a large bag of thai birds eye chili peppers. Wash and destem, blend, and pour into a fermentation bottle. I used a water bottle. You want enough pepper mash to mostly fill the bottle. With a mix of 2:1 water:soy sauce as a brine, add brine until the pepper mash is covered. Leave an inch of head room. Lacto fermentation will soon begin.
Unscrew the lid to burp out gas 1-2x a day until fermentation has reasonably slowed. In colder climates, this may take 1-2 weeks. Have fun watching the color change from brown to red.
Pour the sauce back into the blender and pulse until very smooth. Strain back into fermentation vessel. Fill the empty space with vinegar, watered down as necessary. I like to pour the vinegar/water over the mash in the strainer to get out just that much more fermented pepper juice.
This hot sauce is now ready to consume. Be careful, as it is very spicy. It should be less sour than Tabasco but still reasonably complex.
ARCH NOTE: This sauce was too watery for me and I wanted something thicker, so I reduced the finished product (~600ml) on the stove for ~20 minutes with a spoon of cooking oil added to it, stirring well. About half of the water evaporated out. The sauce is thicker but the flavors are a tad less complex; I think next time, I'll try using less initial brine to make it thicker. "The pros" add flour, starch, sugar or xantham gum but I want to keep the vegetable flavors forward...